


"What were we eating?"

by Bamboozlesophie



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Drinking, Nightmares, Strip Poker, sleepover, the baby has a fear of abandonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:15:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27457072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bamboozlesophie/pseuds/Bamboozlesophie
Summary: Reid has been having nightmares, so  they have a sleepover in an attempt to get him a full night of sleep. There’s drinking, strip poker, and cross word puzzles.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 41





	"What were we eating?"

“Ah guys, should we wake him up?” Prentiss asked, with pity in her voice.  
“No. He could use sleep after the case,” Hotch said tersely.  
JJ lifted herself up with the armrests of her seat to see Reid move, and repeatedly shut his eyes tight together in his sleep. “Poor baby, we should wake him up.”  
“Looks fine to me.” Rossi said, not looking up from the notebook he was scrawling into.  
“The kid hasn’t been sleeping well recently, and he won’t talk about what’s up with him.” Morgan nodded in, pulling one ear bud out.  
Reid was laying near the back of the jet, eyes squeezed shut and knees pulled up to his chest. The leather seats squeaked with every movement, but not loud enough to wake him. He held his shirt in fists near his face.  
“If we wake him up you guys have to promise not to treat him like a baby.” Prentiss said.  
“I would never,” JJ crossed her arms.  
“Just last week you asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom before we got in the car. And Hotch, you told him he needed to go home and take a nap to be less cranky.”  
“That was one time, and it was an accident, it’s just that I do it all the time for henry.”  
“And he was being cranky.”  
“No, he isn’t your guys’ child, he is an adult, even though he weighs the same amount as a chubby 12 year old.”  
A whimper came from the far side of the cabin, causing the arguing to stop. Their hearts broke for him; everyone had the nightmares, it was par for the course, but they could still sleep. Reid on the other hand seemed as though something else was off, and he wasn’t one to ask for help, so they would just be left guessing.  
“I like messing with the kid, but I hate seeing pretty boy hurt.”  
“JJ pass me that,” Prentiss said, pointing to a crossword puzzle book across the table. JJ slid it over to her.  
Emily picked it up, and walked over to where Reid tossed and turned. “Hey, Reid, wake up!” She whisper-yelled to him.  
He gasped and grabbed for the hand she had placed on his shoulder. His chest stopped heaving, as he searched for her eyes, but the second he found them he was grounded. “I was having another nightmare wasn’t I?” He looked around to see a room full of eyes quickly divert from his direction. “I didn’t mean to bother you.”  
“No, it didn’t bug us at all, actually I wanted to get some help on this uh, uh, this question.” Prentiss said flipping to a random half finished page in the crossword book. She sat next to him, shoulders touching, allowing him to lean on her for the remainder of the plane ride.  
JJ took this time to text Garcia, canceling the girls night that was already planned and changing it to a more inclusive night, inviting the boys as well. They had enough alcohol for the lot of them, if they could limit Emily. It’ll be fun, they can figure out what was wrong with Spence, or at least let him get to sleep while still being there for him if he needed them.  
***  
“Hey Reid, you free tonight?” JJ asked.  
“Yeah. Why, do you need me to babysit?” He said, as he spun around in his chair to see her.  
“No, no, no. We wanted to see if you would like to come over to Garcia’s for some drinks, and we’d all probably end up spending the night.”  
“Is this a girls night?” he said furrowing his brow.  
“No, actually we invited Morgan, too.” In that second, he walked past Reid’s desk, “Will we see you at Garcia’s tonight?” JJ then directed at Morgan.  
“Yeah, I was promised a seat at ladies night, no way I’d miss out. What about pretty boy down here,” He said and messed up the kid’s hair.  
“Sure, yeah. I can be there.” Reid tucked a piece back behind his ear.  
“Great, see you there, boys.”  
***

After work, in Garcia’s apartment, members of the team started trickling in by the half hour. Garcia, Prentiss, Morgan, Reid, and lastly JJ all found themselves standing around a kitchen of snacks and alcohol. Reid was hunched over a bowl of chips, like Smeagol, threatening any who dare take one.  
JJ and Garcie were passing a wine bottle back and forth keeping their glasses full, Morgan nursed a lukewarm beer, and kept sneaking a handful of chips from Reid’s stash. Emily had a bottle of whiskey in hand, lounging on the couch. “Let’s play a game!” She yelled, and patted the couch next to her as an invitation to come sit down.  
Alcohol (and chips) were brought over to the couch, and chairs surrounding the coffee table.  
“What are we going to play?” Garcia asked, sitting down next to Emily.  
“Truth or drink.”  
Reid made a face of disapproval, and then looked down at his chips.  
“You can drink for one night, right Reid?” JJ asked.  
“Umm…” He stared at her.  
“NO! I wanna play strip poker instead!”  
“Get ready to get naked, cause I’m gonna… steal your clothes.” Penelope taunted. She got up, ruffling Reid’s hair, and walked to her bedroom to go get a deck of cards.  
She walked back just a minute later, a long robe dragging at her feet. Penelope casually walked in and sat down, in at least 3 layers of pajamas. She took her seat in between JJ and Emily, and slid the deck of cards across the table to Reid.  
Spencer smirked, shuffling the deck from one hand to the other. “Texas holdem, 5 card draw, or black jack?”  
“Texas holdem,” Morgan said, and scooted up knees to the table.  
“Okay, I deal.”  
After some rounds went on, Reid had taken off his belt, his tie, and his left shoe. Garcia was down to one pajama set; Morgan in some boxers and his socks. Both Emily and JJ were down to bras, tank tops, and underwear, and had somehow sprawled out across each other when Garcia smashed herself on the same chair with Morgan. Reid was on the floor, chin nearly resting on the table.  
“Pair.”  
“Pair.”  
“Flush.”  
“Straight.”  
“Full house, I think I win again,” Reid said, and he laid his cards out in front of him. He threw his arms out to the sides, gloating, and smug.  
“There’s a lot to hate about you Dr. Reid,” Prentiss said, pushing her cards to the middle of the table.  
Reid grabbed everyone's cards, shuffled, and started dealing when Morgan passed his hand back, “Sorry kid, I’m out, I think I’m going to shower and turn in pretty soon”.  
“Okay, you guys still in?” He asked with big, brown, puppy dog eyes.  
“Ah, I might just go change.” JJ said. She handed her cards back, and went to the bedroom to get into her comfier clothes.  
“I’ll play another hand,” Prentiss started to slur.  
“Yeah, I will too, I am getting cold though so I hope we can just play for fun, no clothes this time.”  
“Yeah totally!” He dealt three hands only this time. They played a couple more hands until JJ and Morgan had both rejoined the group.  
“Movies?” Emily said, eyes falling heavy as she leaned on JJ. Her black hair was tied into a messy ponytail, and was in a bra and boy shorts only.  
The clock was nearing midnight, and at some point JJ and Emily decided to cuddle on the floor, Penelope had her head laid on Morgan’s lap as he played with her hair. “What movie are we going to watch?”  
And Reid, curled up in an armchair, with blankets tossed over him said, “can we watch Star Trek?”  
No one felt like arguing, because the underlying reason that they had this night in the first place was Reid. Garcie tossed a remote over and he opened up his blanket like a fishing net to catch it. (There’s no way in hell he’d have caught it otherwise.)  
He hovered over the series, but didn’t click on it yet. Instead he got up to go change into comfier clothes. He came back in a pajama set that were blue and patterned, and his glasses had been put on. He walked out, and curled back into his pile of blankets. His head lay on the armrest, as the rest of him was cocooned in an array of fuzzy pinks and soft blues. He clicked on Star Trek, and turned the volume down real low.  
***  
Emily watched him from the kitchen. She toyed with the idea of waking him up, but this was seemingly the first full night’s sleep he got in a long time. She watched; as soft whimpers and heavy breaths filled the room, she sipped her water.  
Finally Spencer sat up and clutched the arm rest as if it was the only thing tethering him to this room. He furiously started wiping his eyes, “Are you crying?” he heard from the kitchen.  
“What? Oh, uhh…”  
Emily was sitting on the counter in the kitchen, a mug in hand, swinging her legs, and sitting next to her was a bottle of ibuprofen. “Hey, Reid, are you okay? I mean with your nightmares and all. We’ve all been pretty worried about you.”  
Reid got up, throwing his blanket over the back of the chair, and sitting on a stool across from Emily. His eyes were red, and he was visibly shaken. “I’m fine, you can tell everyone I’m okay next time it’s brought up. Please.”  
“Sure, yeah. But are you?” She asked, and set her mug down on the counter next to a bottle of ibuprofen.  
“I uhh… I have been having these nightmares,” He said with big eyes.  
“I’ve noticed. Anything you want to talk about?”  
“It’s weird; I’ll be sitting at a table, a dinner table, and everyone is there. You’re there, and the team, and Gideon, and my mom and dad.”  
“Is it like the ones you used to have about your dad?” She asked sliding down from the counter and stealing the blanket off the chair, to wrap around Reid’s shaking body.  
“No, no it’s not like that. We start out just eating, and then my dad says something to Gideon, and they get up to go get something from the kitchen I think.” He wraps the blanket farther around himself, swimming in the extra fabric. “I follow them, but when I get in there they are both gone.”  
“Why do you follow them?”  
“What?”  
“When they leave, why do you follow into the kitchen?” Prentiss asked, genuinely curious as to why you’d follow such assholes, after knowing what they did.  
“I don’t know. I just assumed they were talking about me, and I wanted to know what they were saying.”  
“Okay, I get it. Continue,” she waved for him to finish.  
“So, after I see that they aren’t there, I walk back into the dining room, and you guys left on a case. So, it’s just mom and I. And I look at her, but it’s like she isn’t looking back. Or at least she’s looking at me, but doesn’t see me.” He started to feel his eyes get hot, and a pool in his stomach made it churn.  
Emily ruffled his hair, and put a hand on his shoulder. His noticeable tremors were happening with every breath, and he started to sniffle (a sure sign he would soon start crying). “What were we eating?”  
“Huh,” he was visibly confused and looked up at her.  
“Well, we were eating dinner. Was it a goldfish, jello, juice box type of dinner, or a bowl of caviar and some of Rossi’s wine?” She said shoving him, and making him laugh.  
“Yeah it was a jello kind of night, no, I don’t know what we were eating,” He chuckled, no longer looking like a lost puppy.  
“If you have the dream again, you have to tell me what we were eating.”  
“Got it,” He smiled.  
“And we would never leave for a case without our boy wonder; no need to worry.”  
She side hugged him, while reaching for her mug with the other arm.  
“Hey, Emily, thanks.”  
“No probs, I’m always here to listen.”  
“Yeah, not only for this though, for distracting me, for sitting with me on the plane, for not babying me, and probably setting this up,” Spencer leaned into her hug.  
“The girls/boys night was actually JJ’s idea,” she said, and made a move to put her drink in the sink, “and you’re welcome.”  
Spencer smiled and turned around to look at the room, filled with his friends, who need him, who all love him, and he felt a bit better than he had earlier.  
“Are you gonna be able to get to sleep?”  
“I don’t know…,” he shrugged.  
“Would sleeping with someone help?” Prentiss raised her eyebrows.  
“Why, what are you asking?”  
“I love sleeping next to JJ when drunk, but now I’m sober, and I’m hot, and she likes to cuddle.”  
“Are you prostituting JJ off to me?”  
“Well I was trying, but if you don’t want to…”  
“Fine, you can take the chair,” he said and tossed his blanket over.  
“Nice, thank you, I owe you.”  
“No you don’t,” he said, crawling his lanky body into the floor bed with his sleeping friend, who smelled like alcohol and baby powder. As he lay his head on the pillow, he felt her hand start to play with his hair, and rub his back. He doesn’t remember much else before he woke up in the morning. No nightmares, and the best sleep he’s had in weeks.  
At breakfast, after Garcia had made pancakes with all the fixings, she got up and announced “I have a surprise,” and she went to the fridge and tossed a cup of green jello over to Reid. He looked at Emily and she shrugged as to say “I had no idea.”  
Garcia brought a spoon, and told him “When I heard you were coming I had to get your favorite food.”  
And with that they ate together, a meal of jello and pancakes.


End file.
